Primal Instinct
by Ceiphied Knight
Summary: Drabble, alternate to finale or post-finale. Rumbelle, dark!fic.


**PRIMAL INSTINCT**

When they finally came, as he knew they would, they forcibly dragged him from the bed in which he slept in his small cabin. He and Belle had been there ever since the curse had broken.

He didn't resist, but she did.

Belle screamed and raged and clawed. She was like a feral animal, and she cared very little whose eyes she went for.

She didn't know any of them; had never met any of the people hauling her lover away. And though she knew it was fleeting, Belle had already grown used to being able to kiss her love without consequences. They held hands and made love and all manner of things that normal people could do. Their time together had been so short…

She knew he was hated. Just as he had been in their old world. And just as then, she felt like the only sane person amidst an ocean of lunatics. Because she could easily see what they obviously could not. He was a man, perhaps more broken and more cunning than many others, but deep down he was a _good _man. He enjoyed children and still loved his missing son. He loved her and protected her. He had existed centuries before she was even born, and yet they had come together when the time was right. They had found each other. She brought light to his darkness, and she loved him even when he least deserved it, because that's when he needed it the most.

Very few people had ever understood. Very few people had ever known.

Yes, he'd made the curse. He'd planned it all. But he hadn't been the one to cast it.

But that didn't matter to them. No, not when they had busted down Regina's door and the evil bitch had begun pointing fingers at everyone and everything but herself. Her mother, the loss of her true love, Snow White, her father and his cowardice (as she saw it), and Rumplestiltskin. She proclaimed him the mastermind behind the entire ordeal.

Belle knew that it was true. In the end, it was her love who had sacrificed their old world to create this one on the off chance that he could find his son. And yet, again, he had never been evil enough to actually enact the curse. Regina had done that, herself. Had he used the Evil Queen? Most likely. But, in Belle's opinion, the bitch deserved it.

Rumplestiltskin had finally explained everything to her. Surely, once the townspeople knew the truth, they would let him go.

But as they dragged the sorcerer from the cabin in the woods and took him to a particular spot, Belle got a sinking feeling.

"Dig!" the blonde (Emma Swan, most likely) snapped at a man wearing a black leather jacket.

He and another man (is that the dwarf from the pub?) began flinging shovels full of dirt as Prince Charming and someone Belle did not recognize from Rum's stories forced Rumplestiltskin to his knees.

"I know what you want," she heard her lover hiss, "and I'll do anything you want as long as you swear to keep Belle safe when I'm gone!"

Gone?

"No harm will come to the girl," Prince Charming answered, shooting an indiscernible glance in her direction.

Belle approached them, slowly. The wolf girl watched her with sharp eyes, and an expression almost like disgust. Belle didn't care. Let them think whatever they wanted of her. The love she felt for the man kneeling in the dirt was strong and true, and she would defend it, and him, until she took her last breath.

Which, if she lost him, wouldn't be too far after.

"Got it!" yelled the man in the leather jacket. He leaned down and lifted something wrapped in a cloth. Belle's eyes narrowed.

A dagger with a rippling blade emerged from the cloth. On it was a name.

Belle gasped.

Emma gingerly grasped the dagger and, almost uncomfortably, addressed Rumplestiltskin and said, "Dark One. I command thee. Stand."

Almost against his will, as if his body was moving on its own accord, Belle watched as her lover jumped to his feet with inhuman speed.

It had been a test, Belle could see. A test of power.

He was theirs. But there was so much wrong with that.

He was _hers._

_"NO!" _Belle screamed, flinging herself past the mob and tackling Emma to the ground.

Emma put her hands up in defense, without thinking, and the dagger slipped easily between Belle's ribs.

Rumplestiltskin let out a roar, like a dragon fighting for its life.

Belle's eyes widened in surprise. Emma's mouth opened in a little "o" of shock.

The blonde gently removed the blade from Belle's body, only to watch the young woman slump to the forest floor.

"Order me to save her!" Rumplestiltskin snapped at Emma.

"No, don't!" said Charming, suddenly. "She's just as dangerous as he is!"

"She's just a girl!" screamed Rumplestiltskin.

_Just a girl, _Belle repeated in her own mind. But she knew it was farce. She was far more than just a girl to him.

The world around her grew dark. Someone screamed again, but she couldn't make out the words.

Soon, she couldn't make out anything at all.

What Belle never saw, never had to suffer through, was Rumplestiltskin begging Emma to order him to end his own life.

He had given up. He had failed. He'd failed Belle _and _Bae.

After centuries of life…centuries of trying to do the brave thing in hopes that bravery would follow…he had nothing left to give.

Emma obliged.

**The End.**


End file.
